Devices for manually lifting toilet scats are old in the art. Their intent is to enable a person to lift or lower a toilet scat without having to touch the seat itself. It is desirable to avoid touching a toilet scat, which may have been contaminated by splash and/or aerosolized bacteria from the toilet bowl during previous uses. The underside of a toilet seat is the side which is normally contacted by one's fingers when lifting the seat. The underside is not readily visible when the seat is in its down or horizontal position. It is the underside of the toilet seat which may be particularly susceptible to contamination.
Males are mostly responsible for lifting toilet seats for the purpose of urinating while standing. When a seat is lifted to the vertical or upright position, the seat surface upon which one sits is somewhat protected from splash generated by urination into the bowl. However, the underside of the toilet seat is exposed to such splash. Furthermore, when a toilet is flushed the seat and lid are often in their horizontal positions. The seat is separated from the toilet bowl by rubber or plastic bumper pads. These relatively thick pads are intended to absorb impact when the hinged seat is accidentally dropped onto the ceramic bowl rim. When the seat is in its horizontal position and flushing occurs, it is well known that bacteria laden aerosol from the toilet bowl is expelled outwardly from between the seat and bowl, coating the underside of the seat with contamination.
Toilet seat lifting handles typically extend laterally from the underside of a toilet seat at a location where they do not interfere with a person sitting on the seat. Many prior art handles are permanently attached to the seat. When permanently attached, a handle is almost as likely as the seat to become contaminated. Prior art handles are flat, spherical, and curved. Some have shields to minimize contamination from downwardly directed splash, which may occur when the toilet seat is in its horizontal position.
Missing in the prior art is a handle which is designed to protect the lifting surface of the handle from contamination by an upwardly directed splash, which may occur when the toilet seat is in its upright position, and from aerosolized bacteria created by flushing. In order to minimize contamination from splashes and aerosolized bacteria throughout the range of toilet seat positions, it is necessary to provide a seat lifting surface for one's fingers which is shielded top, bottom, and sides.
Even a toilet seat lifting handle which has a sanitary lifting surface requires periodic sanitization of the handle because of urination accidents or because unclean fingers have contaminated the sanitary surface. Although at least one prior art handle is removable for sanitization, tools are required to remove it. Frequency of sanitization is questionable when tools are required.